The EA Forums have a confirmation of widespread suspicions that Battlefield 3 will not be sold through Valve's Steam platform (thanks Planet Battlefield). As was theorized, there is a terms of service conflict at the root of this because DICE's military shooter will include the ability to purchase DLC from within the game:

Gamers can pre-order Battlefield 3 at Origin.com as well as over 100 digital retailers worldwide. EA offers games to all major download services. Unfortunately, Steam has adopted a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to deliver patches and other downloadable content. No other download service has adopted these practices.

We are intent on providing Battlefield 3 players with the best possible experience no matter where they purchase or play their game, and are happy to partner with any download service that does not restrict our ability to connect directly with our consumers. We hope to work out an agreement where Steam can carry Battlefield 3; meanwhile, gamers can pick from the more than 100 digital retailers listed at http://www.battlefield.com/digitaldownload, or go to http://www.origin.com.

StingingVelvet wrote on Aug 8, 2011, 03:39:That has absolutely nothing to do with what I am saying. If you want to rant about this service DRM bullshit I am with you brother! I hate DRM, I hate having to tie my purchases to these services, all of them. I am not defending Origin, I am simply expressing frustration with people singling it out.

When Rockpapershotgun bitch about DRM and Origin and all this other shit but then suck Steam's cock every other post it makes me go "wha?" When forum posters do the same thing it makes me go "wha?" In short, I don't agree with the hypocrisy. Same thing with Diablo 3's online requirement getting quite a lot less rage than Ubisoft's did, and their battle.net exclusivity getting no mention what-so-ever. Where are the "steam or don't buy" posts about Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3? Very few of them exist. You act like they do, but they don't, not in the same volume as they do against EA right now, not at all. Fuck man, the lack of BF3 on Steam is getting headlines on news sites for God's sake.

I do not like hypocrisy. I do not like that Valve and Blizzard get to play by different rules. That is my main point. It has nothing to do with "Valve hate" people keep shoving on me to try and belittle my points. I own every single game Valve have ever released and bought them all at full price, plus I have 300 games on Steam, but I'm a Valve hater? Fucking ridiculous.

Diablo 3 probably got less heat for the online requirement because a lot (obviously not all) of people more or less considered Diablo 2 an online game, or not very far from it, likely including a lot of the rabid Diablo 2 fans. Those people were already only playing Diablo 2 online, so it's no real change for them. But then you look at Assassin's Creed and nobody plays it online (or even can) so why do you have to be online to play it?

When Steam began, there was enormous outcry about the requirement. Why shouldn't EA recieve the same? The answer is: because you like to jump Valve's shit and try to make it out like they didn't suffer the same reaction EA is now.